What is DIY
recruitment?
DIY recruitment is exactly what it sounds like: you run the hire, with proper tools behind you, and keep the agency fee in the business. Here's what it involves and when it makes sense.
DIY recruitment is hiring without a recruitment agency. You advertise the role yourself, usually across several job boards at once, collect and screen the applications, and run the interviews. Done properly, it costs a few hundred pounds instead of a percentage of salary: with Workvine DIY recruitment, one £399 credit posts a branded advert across 10+ UK job boards, and every applicant lands in one place.
"Do it yourself" doesn't mean "do it with nothing". The point is doing it with the same reach and tools the professionals use, minus the fee.
Four steps,
start to hire.
- You buy an advertising creditOne credit covers one role. With Workvine that is £399, with no contract or subscription.
- Your advert goes out everywhere at onceOne branded advert is distributed across 10+ UK job boards (multiposting), under your name, for a 28-day campaign.
- Applications land in one placeEvery applicant arrives in an applicant tracking system, sorted and trackable, and gets an automatic response.
- You run the processYou screen, shortlist and interview. It is your hire from start to finish, with proper tools behind it.
The maths does the
talking.
A traditional agency charges 15 to 25 percent of the first-year salary, so a £40,000 hire can cost £6,000 to £10,000. DIY recruitment does the advertising for £399. Even allowing for your own time screening and interviewing, the saving per hire is usually thousands of pounds.
You also keep the pipeline. Candidates apply to your business, under your brand, and stay yours for future roles rather than sitting in an agency's database.
Honest about the
fit.
- Good fitBusinesses hiring the odd role, in-house HR teams, and anyone happy to run their own process who wants agency-grade reach without agency fees.
- Less good fitHard-to-fill or senior roles that need proactive sourcing, or teams with no time to screen. That is where a full service like Fixed Fee Recruitment earns its keep.
Not sure which side you're on? The true cost of recruitment compares the routes properly, and Fixed Fee Recruitment is the done-for-you option without the percentage.
Everything set up,
from £399.
DIY recruitment,
answered.
DIY recruitment means running your own hiring instead of paying a recruitment agency. You advertise the role yourself, typically across multiple job boards at once, then screen, interview and hire directly. With a service like Workvine DIY, one £399 credit posts a branded advert across 10+ UK job boards and collects every application in one place.
You buy an advertising credit, your advert is distributed across the major job boards under your own brand, and applications flow into an applicant tracking system where every candidate gets a response. You then screen, shortlist and interview as normal. You keep control of the process and the candidates.
With Workvine, DIY recruitment costs £399 per advert: a 28-day campaign across 10+ UK job boards with applications managed in Talentvine, our ATS, and no contract or subscription. Compare that with a traditional agency fee of 15 to 25 percent of salary, which is several thousand pounds per hire.
It depends on the role and your time. DIY is far cheaper and keeps you in control, and suits most straightforward roles. An agency or fixed-fee service makes more sense for hard-to-fill roles that need proactive sourcing, or when nobody has time to run the process properly.
For advertised reach, yes. A multiposted advert reaches the same major job boards an agency would use, including Totaljobs, CV Library, Indeed and Google for Jobs. What an agency adds is proactive sourcing of people who are not applying, which matters most for scarce or senior roles.
Ready to do it
yourself?
Buy a credit, tell us about the role, and we'll write your first advert and put it live across the UK's major job boards. You take it from there.